MANHATTAN

COUNCIL DEBATES MAYOR’S USE OF ‘PILOT’ MONEY FOR STADIUM

The City Council held a second hearing yesterday on a bill that would block Mayor Bloomberg from putting city money toward the construction of a football stadium for the New York Jets on Manhattan’s West Side without approval.

Passage of the bill, which has a mix of 34 pro- and anti- stadium sponsors, nearly guarantees that the Bloomberg administration will file a lawsuit and that the matter will be held up in court. The city’s top lawyer, Michael Cardozo, testified in front of the council’s finance committee yesterday that the mayor has the power under state law and the city’s charter to direct money the city takes in from payments in lieu of taxes (Pilot) to projects that he believes benefit the city. The council says the mayor’s plan to divert that money without approval from its 51-member body gives the mayor a “slush fund.”

Yesterday, the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, who is running for mayor, said: “No matter whether the mayor wants to veto the legislation or not, this legislation will become law.” He and Mr. Cardozo sparred at the hearing over when the money the city collects becomes revenue – a technicality the city said determines whether the mayor can authorize Pilot money for projects. Mr. Cardozo said the bill was an “impermissible curtailment” of the mayor’s authority. The stadium, which is the centerpiece of the city’s 2012 Olympic bid, still needs one key approval and is up against several lawsuits.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

TEENAGER ARRESTED IN INFANT SUFFOCATION DEATH

A Manhattan girl was arrested yesterday after a medical examiner’s investigation revealed evidence of foul play in the suspicious death of her baby girl, according to police.

Shariece Patterson, 18, arrived at St. Luke’s Hospital Monday morning and presented doctors with the lifeless body of her newborn daughter wrapped neatly in a plastic bag. According to their investigation, police said that Ms. Patterson quietly gave birth to the child in her own bedroom Sunday evening and wrapped her live body in pair of pajama pants to avoid being discovered. She hid the body in her bedroom closet where the girl most likely suffocated to death, according to the medical examiner’s report. The next day, police said, Ms. Patterson wrapped the infant’s body in a plastic bag and carried it to St. Luke’s inside her knapsack.

Ms. Patterson, who is still a high-school student, is being charged with criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child, police said.

– Special to the Sun

UPPER EAST SIDE DEMOCRATS SNUB MOSKOWITZ BOROUGH PRESIDENT BID

The Lexington Democratic Club on the Upper East Side is poised to vote against endorsing its own City Council member in her bid to become the next borough president of Manhattan.

The club’s executive committee voted Monday night to recommend that its membership back Assemblyman Scott Stringer in the race, instead of Council Member Eva Moskowitz. The president of the club, Alexander Tisch, said yesterday that Mr. Stringer won 17 votes, Ms. Moskowitz won nine, and another candidate, Carlos Manzano, got four. The full membership, Mr. Tisch said, will vote on May 19.

Though the club has endorsed Ms. Moskowitz in her past council races, she has not had a strong relationship with the Lexington club for several years. Ms. Moskowitz – with $908,783 in the bank – has raised more money than any of her opponents and is considered a front-runner in the race along with Mr. Stringer, who has raised $793,560. There are, however, at least five other candidates, including Mr. Manzano, who have already declared their candidacies. “My style is to take nothing for granted and to reach out to every member,” Ms. Moskowitz said yesterday. “I am optimistic that when the full membership votes I will receive the endorsement.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

MAYOR PROMOTES PRESS SECRETARY TO COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that his press secretary, Edward Skyler, would take on additional responsibilities as the administration’s communications director beginning next month. The former communications director, William Cunningham, is leaving City Hall to join the mayor’s re-election campaign team. Mr. Skyler has been the mayor’s press secretary since January 1, 2002, and handled Mr. Bloomberg’s press during the 2001 campaign.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MOSKOWITZ RELEASES ‘BILL OF RIGHTS’ FOR IMPRISONED CHILDREN

City Council Member Eva Moskowitz released a “bill of rights” for juvenile offenders yesterday, calling on the city to give imprisoned children “useful education” while they’re incarcerated, and to help the students make smooth transitions back to school when they’re released.

Ms. Moskowitz, who is the chairwoman of the council’s committee on education, said when children are imprisoned, they are often not taught at appropriate levels. She also said when children are ready for release, they often have trouble getting into new public schools, can’t get their records transferred, and are often not eligible for credit for the classes they took while behind bars, she said.

Ms. Moskowitz said the system isn’t just unfair to the children who move through the criminal justice system. It’s also bad for society.

At a City Hall news conference, she said that detaining a juvenile offender costs about $130,670 a year, compared to just $13,000 for a year of high school.

“There’s an economic reason why we should get this done,” she said.

An education spokeswoman said the department has been working hard to educate this group of children.

“The council member, however, is wrong about several things, including her statement that the schools offer only a ninth-grade curriculum,” she said. “In fact, the curricula at Passages, Island, and Horizon are based on a student’s current grade and skill level as determined by assessment tests upon entrance to a correctional ed school.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun